as a
popcorn processing plant, with a large crib under roof where the nuts
are stored. After the moisture content is reduced somewhat, they pass
through a tumbling drum to remove any of the extraneous hulls and other
dirt that might be adhering.

After the nuts are completely freed of all this extraneous matter, they
are passed through a series of cracking rollers with screens. The nuts
are cracked, by passing between two rollers like a wringer then passed
over a shaker screen, the free nut meats passing through the screen. The
large material that comes off of the screen is then passed between more
closely spaced cracking rollers and then further sifted and screened.
Then the various materials that have passed through the screens are run
through a Smalley picker. This is nothing more than metal pins on a
series of fingers rotating on a roller that presses against a sponge
rubber roller. The nut meats adhere to the prongs or points. The shells,
not being penetrated by the points of the pins, are not picked up. Then
there is a comb that picks off the adhering kernels from the picker
prongs. That's the principle of most of the shelling operations of the
black walnuts. I don't believe any major changes have been made in the
processing of black walnuts in the last ten years.

DR. COLBY: How do you remove the hulls?

MR. MANGELSDORF: We try to buy only hulled walnuts, the farmer and the
grower removing the hulls in a tumbler and selling to us only the
dehulled walnuts.

The kernels are packed in cartons and shipped to St. Louis for final
picking of remaining shells and off-colored nut meats and graded for
color, size and quality. After this grading separation is made, they are
either packed in our 4-ounce vacuum-packed tins or 30-pound bulk cartons
which are then sold through the trade.

MR. WALLICK: What percentage of kernels do you get?

MR. MANGELSDORF: I think our operation at Henderson, Kentucky this past
season for all of the nuts that were grown and gathered in this locality
was about 9.48 per cent yield of black walnut kernels by weight.

MR. WHITFORD: Do you get any improved varieties, such as Thomas, Stabler
or Ohio?

MR. MANGELSDORF: No. With most of the nuts that we gather in our
marketing operation very little attention is paid to variety or source.
We don't try to differentiate and store them separately, but everything
is processed as it is brought together.

MR. MCDANIEL: Do you have any indication t